DNA Info & Chicagoist could be under WBEZ in the future....

If you've been browsing around at DNA Info Chicago recently you might have noticed a message at the top as far as the archives. The message shows a link to this press release and was published on Feb. 23, 2018. If you want a quick sum up from Robert Feder blog last month.

A comeback for @Chicagoist via @WBEZ? https://t.co/zOqp9uPjA6 pic.twitter.com/vzB8jGblBb

— Robert Feder (@RobertFeder) March 5, 2018

Chicagoist, one of the online news sites that were shut down when billionaire Joe Ricketts killed DNAinfo last year, may be acquired by Chicago Public Media WBEZ FM 91.5. Public media stations in New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., recently picked up the assets of Gothamist, LAist and DCist from Ricketts. Now WBEZ has been approached by WNYC about acquiring Chicagoist, including domain names, social media assets and archives. “Given WBEZ’s commitment to local journalism, as well as admiration for the work of these former outlets, WBEZ is actively exploring this possibility and determining how these assets might be used most effectively in keeping with the organization’s mission to serve the Chicago community,” Steve Edwards, vice president and chief content officer for Chicago Public Media, said in a statement.

If you don't remember in November last year, DNA Info and assorted Gothamist sites including Chicagoist were shut down by Joe Ricketts because the DNA Info newsroom in New York voted to unionize. Also just last year Gothamist merged with DNA Info and thus Chicagoist & DNA Info were shut down along with the other affiliated sites.

So hopefully the work of DNA Info and Chicagoist will ultimately be owned by Chicago's public radio affiliate. Perhaps both sites will be reborn whenever a deal will be worked about between Chicago & NYC public radio affiliates.

If this does happen where does this leave the efforts of BlockClubChi who hopes to start where DNA Info left off?

Coming soon BlockClubChi

Thanks to Robert Feder and his tweet we learn about a new operation being created by former editors of DNAInfo Chicago. Last fall the news outlet which also owned Chicagoist was abruptly shut down after the DNAInfo affiliate in New York decided to unionize. DNA Info is owned by Joe Ricketts whose son Tom Ricketts owns the Chicago Cubs.

BREAKING: Former @DNAinfoCHI editors @stoomey @jensabella @slulay2 reunite to launch @BlockClubCHI neighborhood news site: https://t.co/OhfPd0mhy2 pic.twitter.com/SXIk1lXKGK

— Robert Feder (@RobertFeder) February 6, 2018

All the same through the @BlockClubChi on Twitter we learn of a kickstarter campaign. So while the venture is about to start they're looking for funds to get operations going. According to Feder this is expected to be subscription based service.

Five full-time reporters/producers — Kelly Bauer, Mauricio Pena, Alisa Hauser, Mina Bloom and Lee Edwards — will comprise the initial news staff along with a team of freelance contributors. Bauer, Pena, Hauser and Bloom previously worked at DNAinfo.

While the approach to covering Chicago neighborhoods will be similar to that of DNAinfo, Block Club Chicago will rely on a subscription-based model for funding. Readers will be asked to subscribe once they reach a certain number of stories each month. Prices have not been set, but they’re likely to be around $4.99 a month.

In addition to a Kickstarter campaign, major support will come from Civil, a new decentralized, blockchain-based platform that’s helping start up hyperlocal newsrooms across the country. Civil was launched last year with $5 million from ConsenSys, the world’s premier venture crypto studio.

Sabella briefly worked as managing editor of The Takeout, a food site from The Onion and The A.V. Club, before rejoining Toomey and Lulay to create Block Club Chicago.

Here's hoping that when this venture is up and running BlockClubChi will soon be covering the many stories that occur in our communities as DNAInfo had. I'm glad to see there will be some efforts towards that.

Chicagoist is going to soon be under the DNA Info umbrella

Chicagoist.com

The owners of Chicagoist - called appropriately Gothamist LLC - announced that they have been acquired by the Joe Ricketts owned DNA Info. Gothamist also has blogs in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York (the home base) and DC. That means DNA Info would expand into new cities.

Over the years we have used articles from DNA Info. In some cases Worlee may have been quote in an article or a photograph posted to this blog was used in an article. And Chicagoist has linked to us once also.

And why did I mention Joe Ricketts, well as you see in the post via Gothamist, he's the owner of the 2016 world series champion Chicago Cubs.

DNA Info neighborhood 2014 in review

DNA Info offers their own year in review with stories they covered in 2014. These stories mainly affect Chatham and Englewood. On New Year's Eve we will offer our own year in review and hopefully you would share yours with us. :)

DNA Info: Mayor Rahm Emanuel Meets Privately with South Side Pastors

Ministers meet with Mayor Emanuel photo by Wendell Huston/DNA Info

The Mayor was in our community on Monday and perhaps it's safe to say with his re-election up next year he's already planning ahead:

Mayor Rahm Emanuel met behind closed doors Monday with a group of about 15 pastors who voiced concerns about everything from a lack of jobs in their communities to the future of shuttered school buildings across the city.

The 1-1/2-hour meeting at Josephine's Cooking, a soul-food restaurant at 436 E. 79th St., was off-limits to the press and public. But afterwards, the pastors said progress was made on a number of issues.

"The meeting was very informative and one that I am sure will bring more jobs to our community," the Rev. Simon Gordon, pastor of Tristone Full Gospel Baptist Church in Beverly, said afterwards. "The meeting came about from some of the ministers who had concerns about the communities they serve. I thought the mayor was very receptive to our concerns."

Read the whole thing. You'd be interested in who attended and the issues noted especially what to do with these vacant school buildings that dot many Black communities.

YOU helped a local couple in their adoption process!

We wrote about John and Nicole Anthony on October 10 regarding the adoption resources contest they were a part of. We encouraged you, our readers, to vote for them via Facebook.  They won that contest, thanks in part to your help!

Nicole and John Anthony of Chatham with their 3-year-old Golden Doodle Maestro, whom they adopted from a friend in Washington who was breeding and selling puppies to fund an in-vitro fertilization procedure. The Anthonys considered in-vitro fertilization before deciding on adoption, which they say is less expensive and more reliable option.



(photo by DNAinfo/Lizzie Schiffman)



Read more: http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20121127/chatham/community-rallies-facebook-contest-support-couples-dream-of-adoption##ixzz2De1sldcq

Lizzie Schiffman of DNAinfo.com interviewed me (JP Paulus) to talk about how the blog impacted voting. She did a great job withthe story.

You can find the article here, entitled "Facebook Contest Helps Couple Get Closer to Dream of Adoption "

Congratulations to the Anthonys on winning and helping their next steps to building their family!   And thanks to Lizzie and DNAinfo for the write-up. We will post more on them in the future, as they report on our neighborhoods!